Sen. Ron Johnson accused the media of sensationalizing the coronavirus and stoking fear into the public.
The Wisconsin Republican, who appeared on Steve Bannon’s War Room: Pandemic podcast on Monday, also touted hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug that has been promoted by President Trump and his allies as a treatment for COVID-19 patients despite a lack of scientific evidence to prove that the medication can treat the coronavirus.
“So the press is going to continue to push panic porn,” Johnson said. “The White House has to relay the good news, and part of that good news should be hydroxychloroquine.”
The senator also called on Trump to take executive action to reinstate the emergency use of the drug after the Food and Drug Administration revoked its usage because, Johnson argued, the United States could potentially save “tens of thousands of lives.”
He also suggested the novel coronavirus is not much worse than the flu and that the statewide shutdowns have been overblown. Johnson agreed with co-host Raheem Kassam that the media is deliberately anti-hydroxychloroquine because they believe it could hurt the president’s chances at reelection.
“They realize the best way to defeat Joe Biden is to reduce the fear on COVID,” the Republican lawmaker said. “If people really looked at this disease, it is worse than the flu, but it’s not that much worse. It shouldn’t be leading to these generalized shutdowns.”
